Macca's prodigal son: Why James McCartney is stepping into the spotlight

He was the one member of the family who shunned the limelight,working as a waiter to make ends meet. Then he fell out with his father over Heather. Now James McCartney is living in a £1m flat and making an album with a pop legend...his Dad...

Rippingly shy, deeply introspective and terrified about being compared with his legendary father, James McCartney has spent most of his life trying to hide from his showbusiness heritage.

While his sisters, Stella and Mary, have prospered from their father's fame, Sir Paul McCartney's only son often refused to tell new friends his surname, lived a meagre student existence in Brighton (complete with long hair and worn clothes) and even waited on tables in a restaurant to earn his keep.

But over the past few months something has dramatically changed.

Now aged 30, James is happily mingling with A-list stars at exclusive London parties with either his father or his glamorous sisters.

He has lost more than two stone in weight, cropped his hair and is wearing designer clothes. He is living in a £1 million mansion flat in London and gets around town by driving his dad's Mercedes.

What is more, he has a smile on his face.

"Wow, this guy has really changed," said one society photographer who has bumped into James several times over the past few months.

"I used to see him around a bit with his dad and he was really reclusive.

"He seems totally different. He looks good and even engaged in a bit of banter with me. He doesn't look like an outsider any more."

Now James has made the biggest leap of all.

The talented guitarist, who was terrified of trying to live up to his father's extraordinary output, is to work on an album with the one man who can help him banish those fears: his dad.

"We're looking at the idea of him making an album. He's doing it all. He's writing it all.

"It's sensational.

"There's nothing set in stone yet - the plan is for me just to do some recording with him. But it's really exciting."

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There is even talk that Paul and James - who looks like a blond version of his father - will do some of the recording at the Abbey Road studios, still revered as a shrine by Beatles fans who turn up in their droves every day to scrawl graffiti and have their picture taken on the famous zebra crossing.

"It's early days, but Paul is really excited by this project," one aide said yesterday.

"It is going to be really good."

But what an extraordinary turnaround for James. Recording an album with Paul is going to involve a huge amount of pressure. The album will be talked about around the world.

And unless it really is very, very good, James is likely to come out bloodied like his contemporary Sean Lennon, whose own music has been compared unfavourably with that of his father, John.

Indeed, James's decision is one that has stunned some of the McCartney family circle who recall a man so morbidly shy he can sometimes barely talk.

"He is incredibly quiet and unassuming," said one friend of Stella.

"It doesn't seem like he has a lot of friends, although he is very sweet and polite.

"I think there was a girlfriend on the scene at one point, but I haven't seen her around recently. His sisters seem to be his best friends.

"He has always avoided the limelight and is a bit introverted.

"He is the antithesis of all those kids who become D-list celebrities simply because their dad is famous.

"I've always admired him for that and I am surprised that he is doing this album."

A former aide of McCartney added: "He is very much like his mother Linda.

"He has her gentleness and sensitivity and is a deep thinker.

"From his dad he has his witty and slightly sarcastic sense of humour - and his musical talent. He really is a very good guitarist.

"Ironically, he first wanted to learn after seeing Michael J Fox playing a guitar in Back To The Future, and not because his dad was in the world's biggest band.

"He has never wanted to trade on the McCartney name, although it seems it is impossible to avoid."

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The youngest of Paul and Linda's children - Mary and Stella are eight years and six years older respectively while stepsister Heather, from Linda's previous marriage, is 15 years his senior - James has always been the baby of his family.

"His sisters have always been incredibly protective of James," continued Stella's friend.

"They still talk about him like he is a child - even though he is a grown man."

Reaching the landmark age of 30 in September may have been part of the reasoning behind this album, say sources close to the family.

"James has realised that he needs to do something with his life," said one.

"He has seen Stella become a massive success in the fashion world, Mary become an accomplished photographer and their stepsister Heather is also doing really well with pottery exhibitions in the States.

"And what has he done?

"James has trained as an architect and is also a skilled potter, but hasn't really pursued a career.

"For the past few years he seems to have been drifting. He has even become a glorified babysitter for his sisters' children.

"When Mary split from her husband, he was around a lot to help with her two boys.

"He has been playing the guitar since the age of six and that has always been where his heart lies.

"And after four difficult years - when Paul's relationship with his children was strained by his marriage to Heather Mills - James and his dad are now really close again. It is inevitable that talk should turn to working together."

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Indeed, it seems the biggest spur for this new father-and-son love-in is the incredibly bitter divorce battle still raging between Paul and Heather.

Since the pair announced their separation in May last year, what was supposed to be an amicable break-up has become increasingly acrimonious. Paul's family have rallied around the star as he has put up with allegations that he was a cruel drunk and dopehead who tried to choke his wife.

"I have a lot of good support, particularly from my family. In difficult moment like this, it's when a loving family shines through."

His children famously struggled to get on with their stepmother, a former soft-porn star and alleged high-class call girl.

"James hated, really hated, Heather," Paul's former aide said.

"He disliked her even more than his sisters. I'm not sure whether he even went to their wedding.

"Understandably, it caused a lot of friction with his father, who was desperate for his family to like Heather.

"And Paul was really hurt by James' attitude as - being the only boys - they were particularly close.

"But once Paul's marriage started breaking up - and Paul realised just what Heather really is - he has needed

the support of his family.

"He was really, really hurt by everything that has happened and James, in particular, has been his rock."

James was just 19 when his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. He was the only one of the McCartney children still living with his parents at their rural hideaway in Peasmarsh, East Sussex, during her three-year battle with the disease.

He found therapy in playing guitar with his father and features on Paul's Flaming Pie album which was released in 1997.

Despite being an art student at Bexhill College, on the south coast, he continued to work on his music with his parents and recorded a track with Linda, The Light Comes From Within, a month before her death in 1998. The whole family came together at their ranch in Arizona for Linda's final few weeks.

But after her death, while they were still grieving, James's sisters all returned to their lives in London. Only Paul and James returned to live in Peasmarsh, where they scattered Linda's ashes on one of her favourite walks.

The two devastated McCartney men slept in the same room for weeks as they struggled to get over her loss. They sought solace in writing a song about her.

But Paul admits he found it so hard to cope that he cried every day. James wasn't doing much better, although he decided to do something positive in memory of his mother, an animal rights activist, and pledged to become completely vegan.

"I'll never forget seeing James after Linda died," said one of Stella's friends.

"You just wanted to reach out and hold him. He seemed lost."

One can only imagine how James must have felt when Paul met Heather little more than 12 months after Linda's death.

Like all of the McCartney children, he instantly took against her.

She was loud and bossy. She was extremely self-important. She was no Linda.

And her attempts to try to win him over - by taking his side in family disputes, for example - only increased his dislike.

Knowing how his son felt, Paul practically moved out of Peasmarsh when he was wooing Heather. He bought a house in nearby Hove, where the two of them would spend most of their time.

But Paul never stopped trying to get his children to like Heather and, for a while, father and son continued to jam together, with James contributing to Paul's 2001 Driving Rain album.

Then in 2004 James left home altogether, renting a small flat while he attended a college in Brighton to work on his music.

Determined not to live on his father's £725 million fortune, he waited on tables to pay the rent.

The arrival of Beatrice, Paul's daughter with Heather, four years ago, did mean James visited his father more often - even now, all the siblings adore their half-sister.

But it was only when the marriage broke down that Paul's relationship with his older children was truly repaired.

Bitterly bruised by the break-up, he needed their support. And none was more supportive than the caring James.

Now, as a sign of his father's gratitude, James lives in a sprawling four-bedroom, £1 million flat Paul bought him in a mansion block near his own London house. (Paul also bought one each for his other children.)

He also has keys to his dad's house and to his car - frequently using the Mercedes estate that Paul has owned for the past 11 years. The two also enjoy weekends in Peasmarsh together.

And Paul, as well as Stella and Mary, have introduced James to the London party scene where he appears to have finally come out of his shell.

At one such party last month, held by Stella's husband Alasdhair Willis, James enjoyed talking to the ravishing actress Thandie Newton and catching up with old friend Dhani Harrison, son of Paul's bandmate George.

A few days later he was happily gossiping with Kate Moss at his father's BBC concert at the Roundhouse in North London.

"I saw him at one party and he seemed to be in good spirits,' said a friend of Stella's.

"His shyness was still there, but he seemed somehow happier and more content with himself."

There is only one cloud on the horizon. Having decided to expose himself to the world with the new album, it would be horrible if it all backfires.

"It is a brave thing to do and I can only hope he will cope," added the friend.

"He has had long enough to work out who he is, to come to terms with what he is.

"He has been around fame all his life and is aware of all the pitfalls.

"But the bar has been set so high around him - not just with Paul but his sisters too - that it could devastate him if it fails."